Why do lots of shoppers walk out of electrical and electronics stores without buying anything and what can you do about it?
Most of us don’t buy electrical and electronic products that often and therefore few of us are experts on assessing all of the options available. This makes having enough confidence to believe that we are purchasing the best product for our needs quite difficult. Sometimes it’s so difficult that it puts shoppers off making a purchase at all and a sale is lost.

What about the web? 

Of course some shoppers search the web extensively to find out everything about the product that they want to buy but, they are still not the majority of purchasers. Even fewer shoppers currently use their mobiles at the shelf edge in stores for product research.

The shelf edge is critical

The majority of purchasing decisions and actual purchases are still made in-store so what help do retailers offer?  Some retailers, such as John Lewis, have well trained staff to provide advice but many retailers do not have enough experts available. The main source of help for shoppers therefore becomes information at the shelf edge.
Some retailers do a great job of getting their signage to provide the product details and technical specifications. This is very helpful for shoppers who understand what this means and how it will affect their buying decision. Unfortunately many shoppers do not know for example if a camera with 50% more mega pixels is worth 20% more on the price or if a washing machine that is 10dBA louder would be acceptable to them. This uncertainty stops shoppers buying because they are unable to make a decision.
 Reasons to buy
Shoppers need confidence to make a purchase and they need to be able to evaluate which product is right for them based upon their own needs. So for example if the camera with the most mega pixels also said on the shelf edge signage “Recommended for prints up to A4 size”  and the camera with the lower number of pixels said “easy to take pictures for Facebook” it would be much more helpful. The shelf edge signage for the louder washing machine could say “recommended for use in a utility room” and the lower dBA model could say “Quieter than average for use in kitchens.” Both of these examples are reasons to buy which help shoppers make the right choices.
Good reasons to buy increases sales
There are lots of reasons to buy messages and the marketing teams in some retailers are trying different messages in different stores to see which works best to grow sales. Our NetTickIT software helps them create and manage the use of these different messages and change them fast. As more marketing teams become aware of this type of functionality and capitalise on it we will see fewer shoppers leaving stores without making a purchase because they can’t work out which product is best for them.